The Original Initiative: Hemlock
by Lou-deadfroggy
Summary: The Avengers go after Horizon and the deadly weapons it created. Natasha encounters a demon from the past even as Bruce buries his.
1. 1 Phil

**Chapter One**

**Phil** looked at the screen and frowned. After two years of looking for Horizon, they had finally found a lead and he couldn't quite believe what Juliette was showing him.

"You're sure?" he asked for the fifth time. They had always known about Greyhound, tracking him down in time hadn't worked out but they had been roughly aware of where he was. Yates, the Agent in charge of the project hadn't gone after him like Ross had therefore the structure to find him wasn't in place.

"Definitely. It's a logical place." Juliette studied him over the rim of her tea mug.

"Cuba." Phil sighed, with all they had learnt about Horizon, it did make sense. "Now, what did you have to do to get this?" That was what he wanted to know, how Juliette had come by KGB records.

"A man opened the door to a blue police box, said 'Hello, I'm the Doctor' and the rest, as they say, is history." She waved her clearance level card at him and Phil had to admit defeat. "I know a guy."

"A guy who happens to have some classified Soviet information?" Phil raised his eyebrows.

"Since when do you know guys?" Clint asked and Phil again asked himself why Clint was there, the three of them staring at screens for confirmation on various things. Juliette rolled her eyes.

"We met twice, five minutes in total-" Phil silenced her with a glare.

"Cuba," he said firmly. "We'll have to check it out. Take Tasha, Clint and I will follow up the Hornet lead in Ontario."

"Let me get this straight, you're shipping Ettie here off to the Caribbean whilst I'm going to Canada?" Clint shook his head. "Have you met us before?" Phil knew they hated the climates, Juliette the heat and Clint wasn't a fan of being cold. Still, Horizon had KGB links and he needed Tasha on that, and someone who could calm Tasha down easily. Clint wouldn't be able to spot every sign like Juliette could. There was something else though, something Phil had noticed in Juliette. He didn't think looking for Hornet would be a good idea until Tasha told him she was fine.

"Fury gave Juliette the lead in finding the Avengers. I need you to come to Ontario." Phil picked at the files in front of him. He caught Clint's smile out of the corner of his eye. "What?"

"Just nice to have the whole, you'll do what you're told young man thing back." Phil rolled his eyes but he was touched. He was older than them, old enough to be considered some sort of father figure. Tasha was in her seventies of course, but Red Room made sure that didn't change much. There was a moment when they debated answering with something soppy and heart-warming.

"Get your things, we leave immediately. Juliette, you and Tasha go as soon as you've debriefed Captain Rogers." Phil wished he could do that himself. However, there was a lead in Ontario that needed his attention.

"Hey, Juliette?" She turned around to face Clint as she reached the door. "Don't let this one kick your ass." Juliette gave her partner the flattest stare possible and walked out without another word.

"Clint," Phil muttered reproachfully only to get a grin. "You-" He had said that purely to get Phil's reaction. "I swear I'll leave you in a Canadian snow drift."

"Only to see if I'll turn into Steve," came the reply. Clint was handed a large pile of folders as reward for that and they set off down the corridor towards the hanger. Phil still hated the tiny side wing that was solely for the purpose of keeping his survival a secret. He hadn't been on the bridge of the helicarrier since the day Loki attacked, or in a control room. He had his agents, of course, but Phil knew he no longer really had what had once been his job.

The plane was waiting, Clint took the controls as Phil went through flight check. They were off the ground and heading away from New York City in minutes.

"You think there's something up with Juliette?" Clint asked as he skirted the coast.

"She's taking risks in practice, pushing herself," answered Phil quietly. "I'll talk to Tasha."

"I asked her, but she didn't say anything. I thought we could have something in common." Phil nodded, Clint's experience with Loki was by far worse than Hornet's little stunt but he could sympathise with Juliette. "I don't think she realises we do."

"Leave it to Tasha." From Clint's expression Phil gathered he hardly thought their redhead could be of much more use.

"Did she mention something about having it done before?" Phil nodded.

"She blamed the French."

"Doesn't SHIELD, have to know these things?"

"I wouldn't want to accuse her of lying when she joined." Phil knew full well that Juliette had lied through her teeth, but he trusted her. If she had been breaking into CIA records not ex-KGB, things might have been different. An enemy's enemy is a friend, in his book. "I don't think we need to worry, this isn't the War of Independence, what the British know, we know."

"Except how to do things properly. We apparently have no idea." Phil had to agree to that, Juliette had even tried to make him remake his bed properly during a mission. None of them had any idea what a counterpane was or what it did but she insisted on rearranging them anyway.

"So how exactly do we bring Hornet down? She can guess every move, she might even know we're coming," Clint said glumly.

"Your arrows worked, you must have been out of her range and they came too quick, she lost a guard without him so much as blinking. Greyhound was too quick as well. I guess we'll just have to work out how good her reactions are." Phil looked at the files quickly, keeping a cold face. He knew what Hornet could do well enough; he just didn't know the limits.

… …

**So, this is part three of The Original Initiative. Part two was Greyhound.**


	2. 2 Natasha

**Chapter Two**

**Natasha** folded her arms as she watched Steve carefully. He frowned slightly as he read the whole debrief before he finally looked up at them.

"Why are we getting this?" he asked.

"Because Fury thought you might get bored. There aren't always aliens to fight," answered Natasha. "It's Brooklyn, your patch and he wants Captain America to be thought to be doing something again."

"Alright. You two be careful." Natasha felt Juliette stiffen slightly, everyone seemed to be doubting her after her failures to bring Greyhound and Hornet down.

"We weren't trained to fight people like them," Natasha said quietly as they left Steve to tell the other Avengers. "No one thinks any less of you."

"Are you trying to tell me I'm only human?" Natasha still had a bruise from where Juliette had hit back too hard in training. Steve was no longer the only person breaking punching bag chains in the gym. They climbed into the transit and Juliette drove away from Steve's apartment block.

"There's nothing wrong with that." Bruce was the prime example of someone who would swap with Juliette.

"You raised the bar, Tasha. Now we're fighting monsters and what happens to those of us who can't keep up?" Natasha frowned at the windshield.

"You make it. You were unprepared and we're used to dealing with drug barons, assassins, people without any extra help." Natasha felt like she was hitting a brick wall again, except it wasn't Clint who was feeling sorry for himself next to her. "Get over it."

"Did I mention you should start an agony aunt column?" Natasha didn't answer and they drove in silence to the airfield. Once in the jet, Natasha took the controls to get them in the air. They were cleared for their flight to Cuba and Natasha took a second to glance back at her still silent companion. Juliette sat cross legged against the side of the jet, a large case open in front of her. Natasha watched as she pulled out various guns and knives, hiding them away on her person somehow in invisible pockets of her uniform. She frowned, there was not taking chances, then there was what Juliette was doing.

"Juliette-"

"It's not happening again," came the answer and Natasha was faced with a determined glare. "No one's getting inside my head again."

"Hemlock doesn't have mind reading abilities," Natasha protested, flicking on auto pilot so that she could sit next to Juliette.

"We don't know her location, we barely know what she was intended to have as powers, how do we know they didn't just add telepathy whilst they were at it?" Natasha wished she knew how to reach out and calm her down.

"We need to bring her in," she reminded Juliette quietly. That deflated her partner slightly.

"I've very nearly had it with super-humans." Natasha remembered feeling like that on the helicarrier, trying to console Clint after he woke up. Their worlds had always been strange, but suddenly it was about more than just Tony building robots or the odd failed super serum. There were more uniquely empowered people than Natasha would have thought possible. There had been a time when she had thought the only people who weren't normal, physically, were herself and Captain America, of whom one was dead.

"You don't mind some super-humans," Natasha said, looking at the guns Juliette had left in the case instead of her.

"Don't you need to be flying or something?" Juliette stood up quickly. Natasha's lips curled into a tiny grin as she span around to catch her partner off guard. Juliette's hand came out to meet her fist in lightening sharp response.

"Mediocre," Natasha told her, smiling. The smirk she got in return was golden, they both knew very few people could have responded to Black Widow quite that quickly. By very few, the list was her two partners and Steve.

"Cheers." Juliette took the controls. "Please stop fangirling over a gun."

"It's a nice gun," Natasha whined, admiring the weapon.

"Yes, it's also mine. Put it back." She pocketed it instead. "Natasha."

"Make me." Juliette gave her a Phil style roll of the eyes and the plane made a sudden swerve. Natasha fell into her seat, remembering suddenly that Juliette had been sent on a flight course two years before whilst the other three were in Tanzania. "Not funny. Don't you dare roll the plane over."

"Then put my gun back." Slowly Natasha took the gun out of her pocket and turned to put it back in the case. The plane swerved again as she hesitated. "Thank you." Natasha glared at her, sitting back down. She strapped herself in firmly. She wished no one had ever thought of teaching Juliette how to be a stunt pilot. It was mostly Clint's fault for getting her a Red Arrows post card.

"Why do you have an old shotgun?" Natasha asked suddenly as she peered back into the case.

"It's loaded with rock salt to fend off ghosts." She blinked, looking at Juliette blankly. "We still need to have that Supernatural marathon at some point, don't we?"

"That's the thing with the angel and the car Phil wants, right?"

"Don't you watch anything?"

"Anna Karenina." Juliette rolled her eyes again. Natasha found it amusing how Juliette reacted to her not understanding references, even though she had sat down and watched the majority of what her partner went on about. Not that Natasha would admit to that though, part of the fun was pretending not to have a clue. The same went for Juliette pretending not to understand Russian.

"Tasha," Juliette said quietly as Florida passed by below them. "You're alright with the links to the Soviets we're about to find, right?" Natasha shrugged. She didn't like things that reminded her of the past, she wasn't part of the Soviet arsenal anymore. She had never gone back, not after she defected. Poland, Ukraine, Germany she had been too, but she had told Phil explicitly that she would not go back to her homeland. She could read and watch Russian classics, go to the ballet and down Vodka, but anything that mentioned the Soviets or came close to what had happened to her she shied away from.

"I know we weren't the only group. We'll just have to see when we get there." Half an hour later they had landed in Cuba.


	3. 3 Bruce

**Chapter Three**

**Bruce** waited patiently by the corner of the street for Adam to reappear. It was getting dark over Brooklyn, the lights of Manhattan lit up the distant skyline.

"Anything?" Bruce asked for the fifth time as the smaller blond man appeared.

"He's not here," answered Adam as the pair began to walk away. Tony was looking at security cameras to try and find any glimpse of the man Fury had sent them after, Steve was making rounds of the streets he knew the same as them. Only Bruce had paired up with Adam who had an advantage. SHIELD's source, whom Bruce suspected was an ex or current girlfriend of the man they were tracking, had given them a scarf, that although covered in perfume had enough scent for Adam to volunteer to try and trace. So far, it hadn't worked and they had had five dead ends.

Bruce knew that SHIELD could handle the arms dealer they were tracking, they had made the link to Tony just to get him on board. The only reason the Avengers were on the case instead was to keep them busy and out of trouble. Fury had learnt the hard way that a group of superheroes with a lot of time on their hands would cause some trouble. He didn't want them messing around with Hornet or something similar again.

"Steve, do you have anything?" Bruce asked once the super soldier remembered how to answer his phone.

"I'm not sure. I've found the car Tony detailed, but there's no one around."

"I've got you there, Cap," Tony chimed in. "Oh, and Bruce, you should probably change your pin, at least give me a challenge when trying to tap into your phones." Bruce rolled his eyes, getting a smirk from Adam who still looked slightly unsure of Tony's quirks. "I can keep an eye on it from here, it's about to rain so you guys might want to step inside." As soon as Tony said that, the heavens opened.

"Okay, see you tomorrow, Steve." Tony hung them up and Bruce followed Adam back to the car. Inside they dripped water everywhere and Bruce had to dry his hands on the seat before he could hold the steering wheel. He say Adam look away again as he started the engine. It was the same look he had been given the first time they set out in the car.

"Not a fan of cars?" Bruce asked after a while.

"Actually, I'd rather be the one driving," Adam answered, still looking away.

"I don't mind if you want to take the wheel." Adam sighed, his whole frame moving slightly.

"You can't go on the subway; I can't control a car or machinery. Do you remember what I said, back in Orlando? About the side effects. The main one is epilepsy. It's a pain, it won't come for months, then all it takes is a few lights, too much drink or not enough food and I get a fit. If I was still on the radar they'd have taken away my driving licence." Bruce was quiet for a moment, Adam had mentioned side effects and he said they could look into it, without really having time to explain them as Bruce handed him the files back in Orlando.

"We'll work on it." Adam gave him a disbelieving smile.

"Why should you, when you're working on your own, condition?" That was true, Bruce still looked for a cure.

"Because Steve needs you more than he needs a normal me," Bruce said at last. Steve needed a stable Greyhound more than an average physicist. So Bruce would follow his Captain's lead.

"Then thank you." They drove in silence until they reached the bridge and joined the traffic jam. "I don't know what I can do to help," Adam said at last. "I'm not a doctor or a scientist. Yates chose me because I was the fastest runner in his regiment; he thought he wouldn't have to add much to make a difference."

"It's okay, we can work it out. I can ask Maria if there's a specialist at SHIELD, someone who knows more about what Yates was doing than I do." Bruce had the basic training to be a medic, he knew what he was doing but anyone with a medical degree knew more.

"You've got a great girlfriend there." Adam gave him a grin.

"We're not a couple," Bruce said quickly. He needed to work on that, not only did Clint like Maria but now apparently Adam thought there was something there too. Bruce knew better than to let anyone close enough to get hurt, and he had to admit, to hurt him again. He had been running for too long, sometimes he had a selfish moment.

"Right, sorry." There was a heavy uncomfortable silence in the traffic. Idly Bruce wondered how many people had had the same discussion with Natasha, only the probably presence of knives would make the atmosphere even more awkward.

Bruce sighed as he got out of the tower lift. As much as having some team work to do was good, he wished SHIELD would sort it out themselves. The four of them didn't exactly know what they were doing. It was probably Fury's version of team-building day in the office without having any aliens on hand.

"So updates," Tony chimed in, appearing out of nowhere in a blur of noise. "No one's come near the car, it's raining and Juliette got Spanish and Portuguese mixed up in Cuba."

"That's not hard to do," Bruce muttered. Especially when no one signposts the border.

"So what exactly are they looking for again?" Adam asked nervously. Bruce felt sorry for him, he was new and half of them half didn't want him there, and he probably thought he had just annoyed the Hulk.

"Some girl called Hemlock, except they're going after the people who created her: Horizon. They've been looking for years and they found a base in Cuba. Oh, and Bruce take a look at this." Tony handed Bruce a pad without stopping mid-flow. "So someone did some research, and our friendly neighborhood Agent has something hidden." Bruce looked at it and shrugged.

"Coincidence?" The look Tony gave him spoke volumes. "Seriously, Tony you can't make that sort of accusation without knowing anything about it."

"Of course I can, I do it all the time." Tony took the pad back and sauntered off. "You should ask your girlfriend about it, she might know." Bruce didn't even bother rectifying that, Tony hadn't listened the first three hundred times.


	4. 4 Natasha

**Chapter Four**

**Natasha** kicked in the door, slightly disappointed when she found nothing. She turned to see Juliette return from checking the last door and shook her head. Nothing.

"It's been used," Juliette said for no reason, they could both see that. She was trying to sound cheerful. Natasha couldn't understand why, she wasn't upset.

"Recently," she agreed. Juliette did deflate slightly, looking around at the dirty warehouse. There was nothing there except the leftovers of what looked to be a soup kitchen and some clean, ex-medical labs on the upper floors. Half homeless shelter half hospital.

"Five years, judging by the rats."

"Since when are you an expert in abandoned buildings?" Natasha asked as she poked the empty crates piled up. A rat jumped out at her before scurrying away.

"I Googled it." Juliette sat down on the crates. "They're not here."

"No." Natasha sat next to her, ignoring the rats. "Juliette-"

"It's our only lead, Tasha, and they're not here. We've been looking for these people for years now."

"We don't have a lead on Jupiter either, don't let it crush you." Natasha didn't get why Juliette had to be so invested in finding these people. Juliette gave her a strange look for half a moment.

"You and Clint did so much, I've been given one little thing to do with Phil's dream and I can't muck it up. I'm not an Avenger, so I have to find them." Natasha sighed, sometimes their pseudo family was less of an advantage.

"Finding them isn't going to change anything."

"I mucked the last two up, I just want to find these people and go back to slitting throats." Natasha smirked at that.

"We're going back, there's nothing here. We'll start again." She pulled Juliette up, the two of them standing there for a moment. "But first we're going back to base and you're beating a dummy up."

"Tea first," Juliette countered. "Then dummy." Natasha let herself smirk a bit more at that, in her experience hitting things was remarkably satisfying and tea, apparently, made everything slightly better.

They walked back to the airfield and Juliette fired the plane's engines up as they went through pre-flight.

"Mede, Romanoff," Hill's voice cut through their checks. "Change course, you're going to Chicago. A situation has arisen. Your cover set-up will be waiting for you there."

"What about Agent Coulson and Agent Barton?" Natasha asked immediately, she hated it when someone else gave them orders. It was too much like when Phil had been, dead for want of a better term.

"They are remaining in Ontario to look for Hornet. You have clearance to fly from Holguin to Chicago. Hill out." Natasha punched in the new course. They were used to being told to change direction but she had thought for a moment they would stay on the same case all the way through.

"Looks like that training dummy is going to have to wait," Natasha said quietly as they took off. Juliette would have gotten over her frustration as soon as there was something else to think about. She wouldn't forget or move on, she just wouldn't mention it until they were back in New York.

"Has the brief come through?" asked Juliette immediately, Cuba pushed aside. Natasha nodded, reading out from the computer screen.

"Sudden illness sweeping the city, homeless shelters are facing dozens of ill and dying people, hospitals haven't recorded anything yet because the affected are too poor to even bother going to hospital. I'm a volunteer shelter worker, you're a vagrant. We're to see what's going on. Our doctors have had a look at a patient and it's not swine or any known disease. It's also not infectious in any way they can determine. There's wardrobe for you at the safe-house."

"Does it list the symptoms?"

"Severe seizures, loss of control over limbs and muscles, followed by a coma then death. So far, four people have died in hospital with those symptoms after being admitted less than twenty four hours beforehand. Another seventeen are in earlier stages, each hospital and doctor is giving a different diagnosis. The estimates here are that another fifty are in shelters or on the streets ill, and probably at least ten have died. The first case was two days ago."

"There's leeway in the figures, for people who died alone before reaching hospital, on the streets, in shelters or outside Chicago." Natasha heard Juliette sigh and their eyes met.

"It doesn't say," Natasha answered the silent question. "They don't know." The symptoms weren't recorded as contagious and SHIELD didn't have any idea.

"And the majority of the people who are ill, what do they have in common?"

"Eighty per cent are homeless." Juliette was about to take the cover of a homeless girl, one of the people who were apparently being targeted. SHIELD didn't investigate swine flu outbreaks. "The other twenty per cent don't have anything in common. The maths is estimated." Natasha shook her head, they weren't even in Chicago and already they had the risk of Juliette getting infected as well.

"Remind me to speak American when we get there, I don't think I can be bothered to come up with some explanation about my accent." Juliette changed subject quickly as they flew over Tennessee.

"Don't base it on my intonation; you've learnt that that doesn't work." Natasha got a half smile for that.

"Is this any better?" Phil's voice asked, almost perfectly.

"You listen to him talk too much."

"Phil talks too much when he's got nothing else to do," Juliette countered only for them both to immediately fall silent. Phil had spent weeks talking to no one but Juliette, when everyone else thought he was dead.

"Water?" Natasha offered quietly, pulling two bottles out. Juliette took it readily. They stayed quiet for most of the flight, until Juliette began to bring them down to land.

"They filmed-" In half a second Natasha did a run-down of what Juliette could possibly say next.

"Supernatural." Green eyes went wide next to her. "What else do you watch that's filmed in the States?" They had landed before Juliette could come up with an answer.

"Star Trek."


	5. 5 Natasha

**Chapter Five**

**Natasha** walked up to the main office of the shelter and knocked on the open door. The shelter was an old church, the nave had been converted into a mess hall, full of tables. There were a few people there, eating but the kitchen was currently closed.

"Hello?" the tiny blonde woman at the desk asked, looking Natasha over. "Can I help you?" Natasha could see the assumptions in the other woman's mind: volunteer, or looking for someone, Natasha was too well dressed to be there for shelter.

"Natalie Reece, the letter about volunteering said to come today." Natasha gave the woman a cheery smile.

"Of course. I'm Tonia. It's wonderful to have you here. Come with me, I'll give you a tour." At once Tonia was all smiles as well, bustling around and out of the door with Natasha in tow.

Juliette wasn't there, she had gone out into the streets to see if she could find someone who knew about the disease. Natasha wished she was, a storm was brewing outside and it would rain soon. Not that Juliette minded, she was sued to rain. The threat of pneumonia, as Tonia started to point out as they passed through the shelter, was incredibly high that night.

"Here, we're about to start serving dinner. There's a hairnet in the box over there, it's as good a time as any to start." Natasha did as she was told, looking at the people lining up for food. No Juliette, or anyone who looked like they were having a fit. Natasha served bowl after bowl of stew, looking at each face for a glimpse of wide green eyes. Dinner took two hours, then Natasha and the other kitchen staff were faced with loading the hundred or so plates into huge dishwashers.

"There's another one gone," a middle aged man said as he walked into the kitchen. "She came in and collapsed, she was dead before we'd even crossed the room." He wiped his forehead as someone handed him a mug of coffee.

"What's going on?" Natasha asked, feigning ignorance. "Who's died?"

"A teenage girl, I didn't even have time to ask her name. She's the third person who's died of a fit in the last two days. The other two went into comas though." The man sighed as he leaned against the counter.

"They're not related though; it's just a string of bad luck. These poor people come in all the time with colds and infections, or diseases they can't afford to treat," Tonia said with a frown. "It's terrible." Natasha noted the symptoms, she had already read them out in the plane.

Natasha left the shelter an hour later, making her way back through the rain to the tiny flat that posed as her safe house. She had glanced in the infirmary, but there was no one who matched the symptoms in there. Neither Tonia nor Martin, the resident doctor knew anything about the deceased except the first two names.

She was wet through by the time she got back to the flat, stripping off to shower as soon as she locked the door. Juliette had apparently opted to spend the night on the streets, and Natasha hoped her night of rain would turn up something useful. She took the computer out to check in with Hill.

"The shelter I went to has had three deaths so far, but they're not convinced they're related at all," Natasha said as soon as the screen came up. She couldn't see Hill's face, just a blank test call screen for security reasons.

"The authorities are beginning to become aware of it, as of yet there hasn't been a new broadcast. We have a team of doctors working on three cases to find the cause of infection. Check back in in twenty four hours." The screen vanished leaving no record of the call at all.

Natasha's phone went off in the early hours, waking her up. She looked around, satisfied that she was safe and answered it before the second ring.

"Tasha." Juliette's voice was back to her normal accent, even if it was hushed against the background noise of pouring rain.

"Juliette."

"Ever heard of Dr Snow and the cholera outbreak in London?" Natasha frowned, looking at the darkened wall of her bedroom.

"No. What have you found? It's in the water?"

"He found that cholera was transmitted by water because he mapped every outbreak. One side of a block has no casualties but the next street has a dozen."

"Water sources?" Natasha didn't quite understand where Juliette was going with that.

"No, it's not food sources either, or airborne. I'm just saying, whatever it is, it's only hitting people in the same areas. You're in a better position to look into this than I am. There's got to be some areas more heavily affected than others."

"I'll check up on that. Are you alright?"

"It's only raining, Tasha, reminds me of home." Natasha smirked slightly. "I'll stop by tomorrow. Sleep well." The phone went dead and Natasha lay back down. She had been foolish for thinking Juliette would mind the weather. At least there weren't any signs of her becoming ill as well.

The next morning found Natasha back at the shelter, the bright morning sun made the wet streets shine as she looked out of the window.

"Natalie!" Tonia ran up to her, looking tired and Natasha could see stress written all over her small face. "Could you come and help in the infirmary?" Natasha followed into the sickroom, two rows of bed separated by curtains stretched out along the narrow room. It could have done with some windows and a bit of air freshener. Of the twelve beds, six were occupied and the curtains were pulled around a seventh. Two of the six were asleep, bowls near their heads.

"They had too much to drink last night, and to smoke," Tonia whispered. "It's these four we need help with." Natasha looked at the four other beds. A tall man was in the process of having a silent fit, being held down by Martin and a braided woman. Natasha frowned; the other three appeared to be unconscious.

"There's an ambulance on the way," Tonia told Martin before turning to Natasha. "He came in fifteen minutes ago, those three were a bit twitchy yesterday, we kept them in here as a precaution. They should wake up soon." Natasha walked along the line of beds, not sure how to tell Tonia that one of them wasn't waking up. She checked their pulses.

"Tonia-"

"Gone? I said they were all the same. The paramedics don't believe me, they explain everything away. No one cares." Martin had a deep scowl, ignoring Tonia's protests. "There's got to be some sort of infection going on, but the hospitals won't help. They keep saying they're coincidences. Heart disease and other problems are widespread in the homeless population, they don't think it's anything new."

Natasha looked at the small pale face of the girl lying unconscious on the bed in front of her. The girl couldn't have been more than twenty, her dark hair lay limply around her face. Natasha refused to draw the visible similarities with Juliette.

"Natalie, could you put the curtains up around that poor man, please?" Martin nodded towards the dead third man and she pulled the curtains around his bed before helping to try and settle the fitting man down. Eventually he slipped into unconsciousness and from the look on Martin's face, Natasha could guess there wasn't much chance of him waking up. "They think it's drugs, that's the excuse we got yesterday. There's nothing being done."

"Have the other shelters had the same thing?" Natasha asked carefully. Martin nodded.

"I think we'll be alright here for a bit, you should go and help Tonia with breakfast." Natasha left him and went back to the kitchen. Face after hopeless cold face passed, accepting their bowls of porridge with murmurs of thanks. Finally Natasha saw mahogany curls escaping from underneath a shabby hat and in the split second during which she held out the porridge bowl Juliette winked at her before moving on.

"Cheers," she said quietly then Natasha was faced with the queue of strangers again.


	6. 6 Bruce

**Chapter Six**

**Bruce** glanced at the bed where Adam lay unconscious and frowned. Corea was on his way to deal with the fit. It was past time they worked out how to stop them, he thought as he scrolled down the screen of data, trying to make sense of it.

"If it's any help," Steve said quietly from the doorway. "Tony and I have found the man SHIELD sent us after. We're going out after him." Bruce winced again, looking up.

"Do you need me?" he asked. "I should probably stay-" Adam had gone quiet suddenly at breakfast and the thud was the first sign that something was wrong. Together Steve and Bruce had managed to carry him to the infirmary, still twitching oddly. The normal epilepsy routine hadn't worked, it being caused by Adam's enhancements rather than anything else.

"No, you stay here and make sure he's okay. We've got two agents ready to take the gang members away, it's just the weapons they need us for." Steve's expression made it seem routine, even if it was their first low key job. "Call us if he gets worse." Bruce nodded but he wasn't sure what Steve and Tony could do to help. Adam needed doctors, not soldiers.

Bruce sat down at the desk, looking through the accounts Adam had given SHIELD when he was brought in after Miami and what they had gathered before Project Greyhound was shut down. He had some ideas, none of which were particularly good ones.

"Banner?" Corea asked from the doorway, going over to Adam at once. In the time it took Bruce to turn around the tall doctor had checked Adam over and gave a satisfied nod.

"I've found the reason behind the fits," Bruce told him, moving the screen so that he could see. "The genes used to give Adam the, qualities of a greyhound, also included the genes for that dog's epilepsy. The greyhound genes are activated, the epilepsy ones follow."

"So the fits come after any time he's used his abilities." Bruce nodded. "Gene therapy could correct the mistake, if we could isolate it." Corea moved the images around on the screen as he leaned over Bruce's shoulder.

"The genes affect his muscles, sensory organs and brain, that's not isolated," Bruce pointed out.

"There are genetics experts back at SHIELD, and ways we can interact with other doctors without letting anything slip. I know the basics of gene therapy but I'm no expert."

"You'll stay at least until he wakes up, in case there are complications?" Corea nodded, looking down at the screen again. That made Bruce feel better, he had limited experience with epilepsy.

They looked through what they could about gene therapy and other options, Corea began to contact his colleagues at various SHIELD medical bases to look into Adam's condition. Those doctors were used to the hypothetical questions asked within SHIELD and the answers they weren't allowed to have. Corea was the surgeon who had saved Phil's life, one of all of three medics who had access to the Avengers. The other two were on standby in case they were all taken out at once.

"You should look into taking a medical degree," Corea said after a while of them working. "Actually train to become a doctor, a real one not a physicist."

"Who'd want to have me in a classroom every day?" Bruce asked with a laugh. "I don't think any university would take me on again." He wanted to, not having to rely on Corea or one of the others when his team got injured, to be more than just a paramedic.

"Of course, I should have remembered that." Bruce looked at him in surprise. How could someone forget what he was? "You just seem like a regular guy when we're talking, sorry."

"It's- fine," Bruce said quietly. Natasha couldn't forget, Tony didn't let it drop, Steve still had the reserved air about him. His teammates though at seen the worst he could do, Corea hadn't. Bruce supposed it was easy to forget a monster you had never actually seen.

Adam began to stir and wake up, staying so still at first that Bruce thought he had passed out again. It was only when he saw Adam's eyes flickering around that he realised the man was trying to work out where he was without making a noise.

"Do you recognise us?" Corea asked Adam gently, getting a nod in return. Bruce relaxed as Adam did, and finally Greyhound moved.

"Sorry, momentary paralysis," Adam said as he pushed himself up. "That's the worst bit, waking up and not being able to run."

"It may be the running that causes the fits. The foreign genes inserted into your cells are giving you epilepsy, the more you activate them the more often the fits come," Corea said as he took Adam's vitals.

"I figured that. Is there anything you can do to stop it?" Adam swung his legs down but both doctors stopped him from actually getting up.

"We're working on it," answered Bruce. Adam was now his priority, above himself. As he had said, Steve needed Greyhound more than a normal Bruce.

"Did I miss anything interesting? End of the world, that sort of thing?"

"Steve and Tony are still out after the arms dealer." Bruce glanced at his watch and wondered if they were alright. Sure, they had faced worse on their own, but it was in his nature to worry about them now. "No end of the world, sorry."

"Not your fault. Anything from the spies? I don't think they're too keen on me." Adam had bitten Juliette, it was a bit of an understatement.

"They'll warm up. The last I heard they were all out hunting things." There had been no word from any of the agents since, although Bruce hadn't really expected any. Maybe a line from Clint, but they had been silent. He couldn't have told Adam where they were either.

"Should we be hoping they catch something or not?"

"I'd say not," Corea answered.


	7. 7 Natasha

**Chapter Seven**

**Natasha** froze as she opened the door to her flat. There was someone in there, she could hear them breathing.

"Relax, Tasha, it's only me." Juliette poked her head around the bathroom door, wet hair framing her face. "I popped in to talk to you, and use your shower whilst I was at it." Natasha rolled her eyes as the door was shut again briefly before Juliette emerged, toweling her hair dry.

"The authorities have officially recognised it as a problem now," Natasha told her. She had begun to make tea for Juliette out of habit. "Are you any closer to working out who's being targeted?"

"It's spread by contact, that's for sure. But not body fluids, it's not an STD." Natasha's eyes narrowed at that.

"How do you know that?"

"Come off it it, Tash. There are couples out there, one half is infected the other isn't, and they both would be if it was transmitted like that. It can't be just hand to hand contact though, or else we would both have it." Natasha handed Juliette a mug and poured one for herself, the two of them sitting opposite each other on the floor, feet touching. "Ta."

"You still think it's geographical?" Juliette nodded.

"Some streets have half a dozen cases, the next road none." They were silent for a while, apart from the hum of their brains thinking.

"Make a guess," Natasha said eventually. Phil made guesses but Phil wasn't there. His guesses became orders, but none of them guessed at anything. Clint predicted where his arrows would land, and the girls knew where their marks would aim for. Only Phil used pure gut instinct.

"That someone is doing this to specific people."

"A serial poisoner?" Natasha frowned, it was too widespread for that, and not widespread enough for some sort of mass poisoning.

"Maybe. Think about the symptoms. Seizures, heart attacks, comas. Fairly common side effects of poisons, most poisons in fact. There would be hospital staff, shelter volunteers and people in other cities with the same symptoms if it was a disease, it would have passed to other people from the infected."

"But it's just the infected, no one else around them. So they were targeted for a reason." Juliette nodded over her mug. "Plenty of people see the homeless as useless, bad for society. Still, that doesn't explain the other cases."

"Accidents?" Natasha didn't believe that and from Juliette's expression she didn't think her own suggestion had any merit either.

"Or just in the way."

"I've sent all this through to Hill already. The number of cases is increasing, and there's still no way to treat it," said Juliette after a moment.

"There's no point you going out there again tonight," Natasha mused. "You won't be able to tell the difference between coma and sleep."

"You're going soft in your old age, Tash, but I'd gladly commandeer your sofa." Natasha took the gun out from underneath the seat cushion before she forgot.

... ...

Natasha pushed the shelter office door open, looking surprised to see the woman there. She had known someone was in there, yet not someone she recognised.

"Can I help you?" Natasha asked politely, running through the photo list of shelter employees and volunteers. The two redheads looked at each other for a moment.

"McKenzie Evans," said the woman. Unarmed, except for a notebook and a Dictaphone. A reporter, Natasha realised as she summed the small woman up. "I'm a reporter, I'm writing an article on the outbreak of the coma sickness in homeless people. Hey, could I talk to you for a moment?" Natasha glanced around for Tonia or Martin but ended up nodding anyway. "Cool. So, do you have any survivors here? Has anyone woken up?"

"People have woken up?" Hill and Juliette hadn't mentioned that at all.

"One person did, after being in a coma for three days. They're in hospital now." Someone had to get to that person and ask them, Hill had to know.

"No, we haven't had any like that."

"You don't have an idea what's causing it?" Natasha thought it would be a convenient time to remember that shelter employees weren't meant to talk to journalists.

"No, I'm sorry. My boss can help you, if she's around-"

"Oh, it's alright, you're free now, aren't you? It's just that the more people who read about it, the more likely someone is going to care enough to do something about those poor people." Mackenzie gave her a bright smile, looking up from her notebook for half a second. "You do realise that the symptoms are that of water hemlock poisoning, right?" Natasha felt her body stiffen slightly. Hemlock.

"Are you sure about that?" she asked Mackenzie urgently.

"Oh yes, I have a friend who works in one of the hospitals, he's a toxin expert. He says it's water hemlock, or maybe just hemlock. One of the two I think. They found traces in someone's blood." Natasha nodded, relieved when Tonia had the perfect timing to come in. She left Mackenzie with her boss and half sprinted outside.

"Juliette."

"What's wrong?"

"It's Hemlock." There was a long silence on the other end.

"Hemlock?"

"The poison. Someone in the hospital says its water hemlock poison." Again Juliette took her time in answering.

"Meet me back at the flat. We need to speak to Coulson." Natasha put the phone away and let herself smirk slightly. Their mission had been taken out of Hill's control in less than three seconds and given back to Phil. That felt a lot more comfortable.

Natasha gave Tonia the excuse of a family problem with her partner back home and left, she was a volunteer and there wasn't much Tonia could do except ask her to be quick.

Juliette was already in the living room when Natasha opened the door, barely out of breath from running back.

"Hill knows. Coulson's on his way here. Our doctors were looking for infections not poisons." Natasha sat down, leaning over her shoulder.

"If we are dealing with Hemlock, we should call to New York as well."

"That's not our call to make," Juliette reminded her quietly.


	8. 8 Phil

**Chapter Eight**

**Phil** pulled his jacket tighter around him as he stepped out onto the runway at the small Chicago airfield. The Windy City was living up to its name, as well as being freezing and wet. Clint marched with his collar up next to him towards the car Natasha was leaning against.

"We thought we'd show up," Clint called across casually. They all got in the car before they began to talk for fear of civilians overhearing around them.

"The labs confirmed the presence of both hemlock and water hemlock in the victims' bodies," Natasha told them as she drove off. "Juliette is trying to narrow down her location by mapping cases." Phil nodded, he had been brought up to date on the flight, but Juliette had dropped off of Hill's radar out on the streets and exactly what she was doing was blurry. "How was Ontario?"

"Cold." The trail for Hornet had led to nothing and Phil was cursing Stark's interference. Back in Nevada Hornet had been easy to trace, firmly under SHIELD's watch and on hand for the moment Fury finally decided what to do with her. Now, Phil had lost her and one wasp in the whole world was hard to find. He didn't miss Natasha's bleak little nod.

"What do we do with Hemlock once we've found her?" Clint asked from the back seat. That, Phil sighed, was the problem. If Juliette could prove that Hemlock had killed, at the last count nearly fifty people, then Phil would have to authorise one of them to kill Hemlock. The Avengers Initiative would be incomplete, and they would lose their only link to the work Horizon had done in creating Hemlock.

"That depends on what we find," answered Phil. They kept quiet until Natasha pulled the car up outside the flat she had been assigned. It took Phil half a second to recognise the girl sitting on the curb. "Give me a moment," he told the others. Clint and Tasha carried on into the building. "Anything?" Juliette nodded.

"Southside warehouse due for demolition. She must have just attacked a string of people as she ran through the city, she's left a trail."

"Are you completely sure it's Hemlock who caused the deaths?"

"Beyond any doubt. I have four matching physical descriptions for her, all of whom saw her stepping away from a person as they fell over, the victims later died." That was good enough for Phil.

"We'll be back out and armed in five minutes." Unlike Greyhound, Hemlock still had an organisation behind her: Horizon. Like SHIELD, or rather more like Red Room, they had the resources to be a threat to four agents, making any fight more than just about Hemlock. Phil felt his phone in his pocket as he stood up to go and get his share of the more heavy weapons in Natasha's flat. Hornet had proved too much for Juliette, and almost for the whole team. He was worried Hemlock would be the same.

"Phil-" Juliette had caught hold of his sleeve and was holding him back gently. "We can manage." He swore the girl was psychic or something. However, he wanted her to be right. They could manage without the Avengers, his little team. Juliette wasn't the only person there with something to prove to the world.

The four agents walked along in pairs, Phil followed Juliette and Natasha with Clint at his side. Natasha had passed Juliette a gun to supplement the knife that would be hidden somewhere easily accessible. The warehouse took them half an hour to walk to, the air around them smelt of apprehension. Not fear, they were too well trained to show fear. Hemlock had killed, at the last count Hill had given them, at least eighty people now, the count went up as more died in their comas and Hill had a new number for them every time they checked in.

The door to the warehouse was shut, the chain firmly in place. It didn't take them long to find the window that had had its board smashed in and for them to climb through. Phil pretended to miss the brief second when Tasha held out a hand to help Juliette through the window.

"If one of you gets near enough for her to touch or breathe on you, you're grounded," he muttered to them, getting a smirk from Clint. Of course, they would also be dead, but he couldn't warn them outright.

The remains of a freshly stamped out fire lay in the centre of the warehouse floor, surrounded by a bed of rags and a pile of rubbish that could have been food wrappers or fuel. Cloth moving against skin whispered in the corner, drawing four sets of eyes to the figure standing by another smashed window. Phil hadn't expected a towering fighter, someone whose weapon was poison wasn't likely to look like Captain America. He had however expected Hemlock to be fed.

Black sunken eyes stared at them from a dark skull, there wasn't enough flesh there to call it a face. In the dim lighting of the warehouse Phil couldn't see more than the outlines of the skeleton that was facing them. Tasha had raised her gun, Clint and Juliette had their weapons out as well.

"Hemlock?" Phil asked cautiously, seeing his only chance at cooperation and a lack of bloodshed. "We're-"

"I was only running," the girl, and she was even younger than Juliette, barely out of school, or she should have been, squeaked. She darted forwards, Natasha fired a warning shot at her making her scurry backwards.

"How do we catch her if we can't touch her?" Juliette hissed at Phil. Clint had tranquilising darts and gloves, Phil only hoped they were thick enough.

"Hemlock, you can cooperate and come with us or-"

"They let me go." Phil frowned, somehow the girl wasn't listening to him. He nodded at Clint to fire the tranqs, he couldn't justify killing her immediately. The arrow hit her in the shoulder and she screamed, the tiny dart going into her skin. Hemlock ran towards them, forcing the girls and Phil to scramble out of the way of her hands, it was fairly safe to say that touch was the means of infection somehow. Clint had the gloves on, but he had to step back when Hemlock reached for his face, grabbing her arms and wrestling them down. Phil pulled on his own gloves only for a gunshot to echo through the warehouse.

"Horizon or gangs?" Phil heard Tasha ask as he and Clint wrestled a sleepy Hemlock down.

"Gangs," Juliette answered and a bullet went flying through the warehouse. "Time to leave." Suddenly the window they had climbed in through was swarming, yells and curses flying at them as well as bullets.

"Pick her up," Phil told Clint. Together they half carried half dragged Hemlock to the other broken board. The girls were fending off the hooded men.

"Shit." Hemlock stirred in their arms, moving her hands out towards Phil's face. They dropped her onto the floor instinctively and Clint swore again. Sedatives didn't work when you had poison in your veins. In the darkened warehouse bullets and flashlights crisscrossed the air, the screams the girls caused bounced off the walls. "I don't think she's cut out to be on the team. She's killed nearly a hundred people by now, Phil." Clint was firing at the gang alongside him as he spoke. "They'll kill her just like we will, only they won't bother with a legal reason first." Clint was right, and Phil couldn't lose any of them over Hemlock.

"All of you out," he ordered but reached down for Hemlock anyway. The girl was awake fully now and sprang at him. Phil's foot threw her back onto the floor and then she was gone in the direction of the window, with the agents busy keeping the firefight from killing them none of them could run after her. Phil managed to reach the window but she was gone.

Clint jumped through it in one bound, firing back at the now routed gang. Natasha and Phil joined him, Juliette came through a minute later.

"There." Clint pointed and Juliette was already off at a run after Hemlock, Natasha close behind.

"Stop right where you are and put your hands where I can see them." Phil cursed the megaphone wielding cops as they pulled up across the junction between Juliette and Hemlock. The skeletal girl vanished from view.

Phil missed whatever quip Juliette gave the officers as she slid under their car. Angry shouts followed her down the street.

"She's gone," Clint said as he and Phil melted into a side street. Hemlock had gone, even Juliette couldn't catch her now.


	9. 9 Bruce

**Chapter Nine**

**Bruce** looked over the papers Corea had sent him concerning Adam and the proposals from the various genetics experts at SHIELD run hospitals. Every option was dangerous as they were dealing with the unknown and much of the original data on Adam's procedure had been lost, or was being withheld by Yates, the officer in charge of the project.

"Fury has given a team direct orders to find a way to stabilise Greyhound," Maria's voice said quietly from near the coffee machine. Bruce hadn't quite worked out how no one else ever seemed to be in the kitchen when they both were there.

"Good." No one was making the same effort to bring the other guy under control, Bruce thought glumly, and he was more of a danger than an epileptic Greyhound. He chided himself on his uncharitable thought. Adam deserved to be helped as well of course. Bruce however was actively discouraged from trying to work on his own blood samples.

"Bruce-" He gave her a weary smile to head off any chiding he was about to get. Since Maria seemed to spend every second she wasn't in the control room in Tony's kitchen with him Bruce had begun to learn exactly what would result in a ticking off. To his surprise she wasn't looking stern, she was holding out a booklet to him.

"What's this?"

"Enrolment forms for a distance learning medical degree." Bruce stared at her, the papers hovering in his hand in mid-air. Maria's face softened into a broad smile. "It would be an advantage to have you as a medically trained doctor." Her words had trouble sinking in. "The university has already accepted you on the course, you just need to confirm it." Slowly Bruce looked down at the booklet, seeing it with someone else's eyes.

"Really?" he asked finally, glancing up to find that Maria was perched on the table next to him.

"Yes." Bruce's mouth hung open, too surprised to smile.

"Thank you." Maria smirked, presumably at his expression of shock.

"Obviously distance learning isn't ideal, but I'm sure you can manage to keep up." Bruce sobered slightly as he remembered no actual university would take him as a student on campus.

"It doesn't matter. Thank you-" He held Maria's gaze for too long a moment before they simultaneously looked away. "Thank you," Bruce said again for good measure because he didn't want to dwell on that look. Maria simply nodded.

"Whoa, didn't mean to interrupt the date," Tony said loudly as he appeared in the doorway, empty coffee mug in hand ready for a refill.

"You didn't," mumbled Bruce. Maria had gotten off the table, leaving the course booklet lying closed. She gave it a slight nudge in his direction and walked out without a word.

"So..." Tony clearly wasn't capable of making coffee without having to talk at the same time. "When are you actually going to ask her out."

"In an alternate reality where the world works according to popular imagination not real life," Bruce answered. He wasn't in the habit of talking to anyone about what he felt, in the jungle and in the slums he hadn't had anyone, now he kept it bottled up. Tony, and even Adam couldn't get their heads around the fact that he didn't have friendships, much less relationships.

"But she forged paperwork to get you on a degree course." Bruce looked up sharply.

"What?"

"She- Bruce, the name on the forms, if you've read them, isn't yours. She lied through her teeth because no one wants anything to do with your amazing brain for some weird reason. If that, plus the whole standing up for your ass against Ross thing didn't make it plain, here's the truth. She likes you. Big time." Tony added a shot to his coffee. "So, ask her on a date, have some fun, hell knows she needs loosening up too."

Bruce stared down at the paperwork and forms and saw that Tony was indeed right, it was close, but his name was misspelled. Robert Brunner. He hadn't expected Maria to have used his real name, not really. Tony was right though, Maria had done more than just do the best for the team and Bruce knew that. He still couldn't do anything about it.

"Look, there are plenty of reasons and details that are private, Tony. We're friends. That's all." He had lost count of how many times he had said that, to himself and to others. They were friends.

"Just as our pet super spies are friends." He heard Tony mutter darkly. "Well have fun at med school. It won't keep you too busy, you can still help me."

"Help you blow things up and rebuild dummy?" Bruce was no engineer, he freely admitted that he had trouble keeping up with Tony on some points.

"We're the future of science, it's important stuff."

"I can do both," Bruce answered wearily. "Soon I'll even be able to stitch you up after you've blown us all up." Tony gave him a winning grin at that.

"As long as you get your girl as well," he called and left Bruce to sigh in the empty kitchen. Slowly he looked down at the papers and let himself smile. A real doctor, he could finally be of use on his own merits, not the other guy's. Sure Fury had called him in partly because of his knowledge of gamma radiation but now that the cube was gone he wasn't needed. A doctor on the team however was an asset to Steve. Without heeding Tony's actual suggestions, Bruce began to plan some way of saying thank you to Maria, and possibly Corea as well, he had an inkling that the tall doctor had some hand in it as well. Their thank you's would, needless to say, be quite different.

… …

**Sorry this took so long, college started and well, yeah excuses here.**


	10. 10 Natasha

**Chapter Ten**

**Natasha** saw Juliette rub her eyes again and decided it was time for them to leave the screens for one night. Or morning actually, it had to be about five am. Juliette had gone back to her frantic search through the records for any whisper of Horizon or Hemlock.

"Sleep," she ordered the brunette firmly.

"And let Hemlock kill more people?" Juliette took a sip of tea and waved Natasha's concerns off.

"Then get some air, you can't think cooped up in here. I can't." Natasha stood up, ready to pull her partner up with her. Air was quick and Juliette could let herself have a short break, which Natasha planned to use to get back up in the form of Phil and Clint to get her to go to sleep. She knew she had won when Juliette stood up.

"Five minutes for air," muttered Juliette and Natasha made the most of the surrender to usher her out of the room and towards the door that led to the roof. The morning air was crisp and already the sun was rising. Natasha perched on the edge of the roof to look out at the city, Juliette on the floor at her feet with her back to the skyline. There was a warm head leaning against her leg, Natasha noticed pleasantly.

"Phil gave me this." She pulled a scrap of paper out of her pocket. Of course Phil hadn't had time, Natasha had found it a few days before but Juliette was more likely to read it out if she thought it could have come from Phil.

Juliette unfolded the paper and gave Natasha a weary look as if to ask if she really had to read it out.

"I know a solemn secret to keep between ourselves." Natasha looked away out at the skyline; she had found the poem and decided it would sound nice if Juliette read it out. "I heard it from a sparrow who heard if from the elves." Clint, Natasha thought, she couldn't help but make it appropriate to them. "That always after 2 am before the first cock crow, the elfin people fill the Tubes just to overflow." That ought to earn her a smile, Tubes not Subways. "The grown-ups do not know it, they put the trains to bed, and never guess that magic will drive them in their stead. All day the goblin drivers were hiding in the dark, if mortals catch a fairy's eye they take it for a spark." Natasha kept looking straight ahead to avoid making eye contact at that line.

They both turned around as they heard someone step through the door Natasha had left open. Steve was quiet, almost silent in his movements and it was hard to tell how long he had been just inside. He was staring at Juliette oddly, almost not noticing Natasha.

"Please don't stop," he said quietly, a catch in his voice.

"Elves patter down the subways, they crowd the moving stairs. From purses full of tiddly-winks they pay the clerk their fares." Natasha was watching Steve's face intently, seeing the shadows pass over it as Juliette read the poem out. She thought she should at least pretend to leave. At the door she stopped just inside, still within earshot.

"A Brownie checks their tickets and says the proper things: Come, pass along the car there! Now, ladies mind your wings! Steve-" Juliette broke off with a tiny sigh. "There are recordings of that sort of voice that sound much similar than mine." They were talking about Peggy. Natasha had heard her voice once on a Captain America show Phil had been watching. "BBC English. I could-"

"It's fine," answered Steve. "It's- I'm sorry." Natasha melted away into a corner as Steve came back in from the roof quickly, hurrying away from them. Natasha poked her head back out to see Juliette sitting on the edge of the roof, her feet dangling down into thin air as if it was water she was paddling in, each leg circling in a sort of psychotic rhythm. Natasha said nothing, sitting down beside her.

"It's a funny little verse," Juliette said at last. "We should go back in." Natasha debated catching her arm as Juliette stood up with a sigh. Instead it was Juliette's hand that pulled her up and they resignedly went back in. Natasha doubted they would find much, what was one homeless girl in a world of faces when they had neither name nor any kind of profile? It was rare that SHIELD knew nothing about anyone, especially a threat.

At the door to the small computer office Tony had put aside for them to use, stood Steve, waiting with a contrite expression on his face.

"Agent Mede?" he asked, conveying a mixture of some old man's upsets and the nervousness of a teenage boy at the same time. "Could I-"

"See you in a minute," Natasha murmured and passed them, shutting the door to give Steve some piece of mind that they were alone. Absently she began to stir the computers back to life. "So?" she asked when the door opened.

"I think Phil's rubbed off on me. I now have a second outing with Captain America." Juliette shot her a smug and somewhat confused smirk. It suited her better than the stressed scowl the computers forced upon her.

"You could just send him the audio tapes," muttered Natasha.

"My theatre days are over," Juliette began. "Hello, what's this?" Suddenly their attention was fixed on the screen, both of them staring cross eyed at it. "Do we have aerial surveillance over that area?" Juliette asked.

"Montana? No, I can get Hill to move something there though." The link was already up on Natasha's screen before she finished saying it.

"Use Google Maps, it's quicker." But hardly professional, Natasha added silently. "See anything? I've got satellite readings, bugger."

"Blocked?"

"No, there's more than you could shake a stick at. It's going to take hours to sift through and find anything on geo-phys. Why is everything always underground?" Natasha shrugged. "Maybe they're an Indie crime ring or something."

... ...

**More filler, sorry. Stuff will start happening and the chapters will stop being the same. Thanks to those who reviewed, all comments are welcome. The poem Juliette was reading is called: The Elfin People Fill The Tubes by Winifred Letts. Most of the other quotes are Shakespeare.**


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